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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" 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 risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to