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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known 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 struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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