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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate 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.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated 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 big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to