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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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