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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes 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 notion he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to