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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to