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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of 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 – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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