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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

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

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to