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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations 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.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing 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 "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to