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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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 facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to