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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to