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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. 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 stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching 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 gets going. His alliance with the US president entails 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 thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to