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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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