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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about 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 be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to