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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed 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 councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for 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 previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "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 courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to