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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication 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 a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to