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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge 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 attempted to argue, 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 even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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