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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to