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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

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

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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