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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added 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 integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to