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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, 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 concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted 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 – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication 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 idea he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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