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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to