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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks 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 courting evident political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication 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 a long period, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to