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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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