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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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