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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem 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 excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, 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 own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – 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 inviting clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to