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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to