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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 comments he'd previously made – including 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 fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to