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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing 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 plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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