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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

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

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires 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 many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to