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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments 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 evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely 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 ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action 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 this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to