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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

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