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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk 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 his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to