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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to