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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, 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 political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout 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 not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

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

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on 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 his career, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always 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 firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to