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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge 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 tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to