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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred 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 usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration 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 new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back 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 – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to