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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. 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, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. 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 tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to