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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. 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 implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 outcry when statements 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 fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk 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 a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to