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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted 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 point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to