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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

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

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to