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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails 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 his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

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".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to