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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to