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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – 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 stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government 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, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "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 courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to