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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed 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 devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to