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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" 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 clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires 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 content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to