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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification 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 time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" 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 progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to