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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

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

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

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 controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to