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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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