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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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