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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to