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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised 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 concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating 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 disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated 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 within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – 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 fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship 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 notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

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