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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, 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 – up to a point. 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 scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention 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 comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to