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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, 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.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

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

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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