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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

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

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk 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 many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to