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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

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

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to