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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, 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 be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, 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 partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse 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 simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to