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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

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

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir 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 facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to