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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with 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