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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

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

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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 difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising 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 gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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