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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem 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 attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching 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 gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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