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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any 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 attempting to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, 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, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of 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.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to