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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, 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 government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to