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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to