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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh 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 sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue 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 sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable 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.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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