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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

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

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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