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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key 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 usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier 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 entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to