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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue 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 attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on 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.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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