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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering 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".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 outcry 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 more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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