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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to