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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," 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 across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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