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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to