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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even 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 following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to