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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge 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 not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to