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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation 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 attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to