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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed 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 vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to