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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue 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 sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of 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 – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- 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 "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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