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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

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

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 – surfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to