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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about 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 scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging 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 a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to