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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though 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 scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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 inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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