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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No administration, 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 government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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