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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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 "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to