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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted 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 previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes 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 notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to