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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to