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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer 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 obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to