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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" 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 risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to