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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe 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 – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut 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 wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to