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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant 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, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen 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 greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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 only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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