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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting 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 reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, 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 – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy 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 a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to