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"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" 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.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to