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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his term 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 replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – 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 implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me 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 statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "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 dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to