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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried 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.

Accurate – to some extent. 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 scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to