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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted 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 previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to