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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe 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 although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to