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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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