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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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