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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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