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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification 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 allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges 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 told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to