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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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 many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes 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 at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to