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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

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

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to