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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir 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 country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails 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 many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to