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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely 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.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments 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 clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to