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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time 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 big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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 dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to