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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – 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 fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to 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 consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to