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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede 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 colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

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

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "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 perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy 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 at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to