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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to