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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close 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 qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to