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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened 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 considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to