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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication 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 his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn 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 prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to