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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

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

True – in part. 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 situation under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to