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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for 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 – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some 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 next few days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to