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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to