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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated 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 potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers 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 former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to