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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has 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, including 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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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