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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. 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 situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time 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 provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to