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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried 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.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement 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 coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

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 following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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