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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't 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 more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires 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 a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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