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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, 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 not want 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 a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to