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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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