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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed 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 big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" 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 clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to