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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention 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 these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to