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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. 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 scenario under which he would walk away, should one of 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 public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir 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 facing clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to