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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

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

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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