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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

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 tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk 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 notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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