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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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