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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe 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 saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

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

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

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

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to