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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including 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 after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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