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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of 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.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to