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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed 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 qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement 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 talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – 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 fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to