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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement 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 allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 idea he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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