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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones 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 dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time 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 ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider 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 challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to