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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty 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 settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to