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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to