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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought 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 about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

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

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" 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 – surfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to