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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash 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 it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to