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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. 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 circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new 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 time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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