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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to