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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need 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 challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to