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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

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

• He committed 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 caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" 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 – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to