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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

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

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new 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 time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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 challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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