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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue 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 attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to