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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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