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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

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

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

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 backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires 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 idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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