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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe 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.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said 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 time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to