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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 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 some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including 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 not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to