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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, 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 degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

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

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though 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 contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement 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 talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to 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