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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout 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 not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to