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"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, 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 – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

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

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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