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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising 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 alliance with the US president takes on a new risk 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 a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to