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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, 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 acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, 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 partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

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