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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, 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 immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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 after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to