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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify 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 takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to