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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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 step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes 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 idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to