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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit 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 ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication 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 notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to