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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue 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 contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. 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 implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to