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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, 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 admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

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

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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