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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed 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 potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to