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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major 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 devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to