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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

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 take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. 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 pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to