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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, 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 although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following 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 process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting 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 former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to