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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering 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 "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to