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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing 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 intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about 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 concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action 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 at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking 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 some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to