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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to