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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant 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 walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted 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 new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir 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 obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

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

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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