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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, 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 charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to