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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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 after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to