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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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 resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to