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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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