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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about 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 not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance 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 idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to