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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement 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 partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to