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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

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

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to