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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands 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 results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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