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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want 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, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" 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 dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast 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 commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to