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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though 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 scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to