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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication 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 comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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