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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to