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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect 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 more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to