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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. 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 scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "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 clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship 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 his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to