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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth 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 remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time 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 argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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 statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to 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 long been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to