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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to