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"I will remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before 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 done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team 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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to