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"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me 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 past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk 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 a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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