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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer 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 most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to