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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue 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 sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit 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 walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't 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 occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to