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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

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