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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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 after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action 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 notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to