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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close 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 usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, 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 admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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