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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to