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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge 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 resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to