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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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 walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems 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 prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to