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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred 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 typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

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

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede 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 resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as 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 courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to