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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit 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 step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement 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 talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is 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, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to