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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to