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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, 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 although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners 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 this year 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, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication 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 many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to