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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk 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 notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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