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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to