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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

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

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes 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 idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to