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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to