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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to