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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem 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 sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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