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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new 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 time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires 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 thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to