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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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