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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe 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 – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including 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 not my fault.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to