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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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 statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to