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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to