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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to