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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want 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 walk away, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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