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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 outcry when statements 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 fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to