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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication 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 a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks 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 move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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