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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade 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 policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, 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 considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to