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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

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

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. 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 stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me 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 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 catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to