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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, 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 – up to a point. But although 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 circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

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 comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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