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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, 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 a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

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, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" 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 unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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