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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused 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. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want 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 walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to