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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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