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"I will remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir 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.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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 following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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