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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to