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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. 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 growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to