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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes 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 content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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