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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not 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 talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

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