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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader 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 remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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