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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, 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 even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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 encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move 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