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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with 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