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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication 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 his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to