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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted 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 full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations 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 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 faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of 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 – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to