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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication 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 idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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