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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

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

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to