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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though 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 walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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