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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point 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 offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy 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 idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to