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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher 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 the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

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

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to