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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, 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 new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back 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 – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to