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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour 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 close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments 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 judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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