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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

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

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to