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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend 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 mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to