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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody 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 replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to