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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. 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 implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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