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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – 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 stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship 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 his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to