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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch 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 scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need 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.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication 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 unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to