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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

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

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed 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 caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to