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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion 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 point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of 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 – surfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

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

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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