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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit 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 walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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