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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal 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 talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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