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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant 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, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to