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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth 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 far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly 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 rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to