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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps 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.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents 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 long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to