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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 backlash when comments 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 fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision 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