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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning 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 acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed 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 bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need 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.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, 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 comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to