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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility 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 provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to