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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge 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, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to