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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship 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 his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to