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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to