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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

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 after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake 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 huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to