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"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

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

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to