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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat 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 attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government 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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to