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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

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

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, 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 controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing 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.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to