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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of 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 – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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