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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to