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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 idea he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to