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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation 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 sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to