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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, 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 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 suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso 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 comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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