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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, 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 although 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 walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as 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 clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to