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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented 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 set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to