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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although 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 circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

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

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to