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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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 a 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 electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires 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 his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to