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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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