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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular 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 colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events 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".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to