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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to