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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly 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 hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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 risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to