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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – 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 implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on 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 comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to