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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for 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.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to