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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, 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 concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion 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 soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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 backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to