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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of 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 system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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