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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede 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 MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to