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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

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

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to