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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral 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 leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. 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 resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to