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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

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

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 many years, 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 we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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