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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails 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 thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to