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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although 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 circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me 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 controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to