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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought 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 – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, 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.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even 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 attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to