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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather 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 "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge 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 sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to