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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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