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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to