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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to