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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to