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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede 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 a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to