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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

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

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't 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 stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments 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 more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to