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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication 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 comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to