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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to