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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy 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 not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy 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 a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to