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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem 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 protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. 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 implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching 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 alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to