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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is never any time off 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 decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against 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 "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to