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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried 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.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to admit 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 resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

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