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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put 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 a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to