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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to