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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, 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 allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

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

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to