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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to