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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue 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 tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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