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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to