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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set 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 time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, 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 problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer 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 courting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires 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 a long period, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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