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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario 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 rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

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

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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