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

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to