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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation 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 end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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