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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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