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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that 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 fight of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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