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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path 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 declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps 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 judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers 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 many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to