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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired 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 concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to