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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

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, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

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

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that followed 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