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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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