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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify 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 alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into 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