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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although 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 circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific 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 time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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 only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising 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 progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to