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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

There is never any break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back 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 "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to