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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, 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 concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry 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 realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

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

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to