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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

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

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move 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