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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted 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 even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements 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 failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to