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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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