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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout 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 – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year 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 show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "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 clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to