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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop 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 be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to