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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to