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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems 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.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe 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 rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to