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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

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

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

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

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to