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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to