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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash 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 failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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