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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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