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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify 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 gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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