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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into 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