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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to admit 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 step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "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 courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to