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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge 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 contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated 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 contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering 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 "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to