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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

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

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly 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 governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to