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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest 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 sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to