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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching 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 progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to