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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline 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 stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship 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 a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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