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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation 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 tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to