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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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