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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

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

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" 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 – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic 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 entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to