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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to