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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs 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 naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed 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 greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to