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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" 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 dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to