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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

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 statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to