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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back 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 system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices 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 simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to