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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, 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 not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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 controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into 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