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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive 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 safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially 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 only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify 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 close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to