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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his term 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 times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer 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 courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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