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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. 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 stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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