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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much 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 just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed 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