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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

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

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as 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 fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to