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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer 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 inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action 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 notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to