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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, 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 not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to