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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working 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 the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to