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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan 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 mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me 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 failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship 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 implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to