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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, 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 evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point 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 safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to