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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

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

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to