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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale 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 safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, 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 following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to