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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge 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 devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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