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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I intend to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to