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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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 resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic 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 complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former 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 unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to