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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although 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 walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship 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 a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to