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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit 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 walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

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

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to