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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of 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 – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. 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 was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to