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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout 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 – 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 implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific 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 stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing 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 this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to