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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to