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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to