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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, 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 although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to