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"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new 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 time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to