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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if 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 low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing 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 more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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