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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance 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 many years, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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