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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that 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 struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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