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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede 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 resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 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 while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required 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 challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action 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 content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to