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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

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

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

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

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to