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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed 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 colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship 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 many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to