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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

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

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

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

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance 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 thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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