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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

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

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso 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 stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements 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 realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted 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 before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to