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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest 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 awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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