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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to