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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

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 tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed 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 core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

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 – surfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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