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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" 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 dangers 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 ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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