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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to