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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue 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 sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut 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 qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to