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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to