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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely 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 offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails 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 at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to