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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big 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 usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut 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 wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to