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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what 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 interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship 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 former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to