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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue 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, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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