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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government 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 said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to