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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification 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 disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to