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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister 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 oust him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known 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 unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify 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 entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into 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