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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

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

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to