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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little 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 saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

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

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to