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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede 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 contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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