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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration 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 new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "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 evident political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to