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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred 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 normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about 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 walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with 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