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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

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

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to