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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "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 risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to