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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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 clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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