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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps 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 difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication 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 many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to