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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. 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 undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to