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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes 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 notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to