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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation 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 saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

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

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir 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 inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

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

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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