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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

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 throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point 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 guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" 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 gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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