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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, 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 normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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