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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal 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 talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic 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 intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing 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 such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to