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

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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 backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to