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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "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 risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to