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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing 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 "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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