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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance 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 asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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