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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought 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 economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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