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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to