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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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