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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, 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 "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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