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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising 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 gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to