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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

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

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "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 obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to