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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to