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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to