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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

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

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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