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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede 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 step down, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to