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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although 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 scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged 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 reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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