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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove 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 "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, 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 not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "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 obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to