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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" 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 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 at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to