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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

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

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to