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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout 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 about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement 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 talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of 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 – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to