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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication 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 thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to