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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, 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 hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" 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 evident political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to