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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem 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 sought to protest, 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 even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

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

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising 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 progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires 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 his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to