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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

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 attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known 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 unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to