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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

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

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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