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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk next year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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 obvious political dangers 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 ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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