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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

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 sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "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 risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to