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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, 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 although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed 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 possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir 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 evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to