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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though 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 circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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