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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

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

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe 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.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action 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 content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to