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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want 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 resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of 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.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to