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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

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

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – 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 step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to