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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to