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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

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

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to