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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said 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 major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising 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 entails 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 many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to