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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added 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 time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

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

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to