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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

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

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils 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 ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to