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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk next year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal 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 discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted 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 previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to