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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on 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 stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to