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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM 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, 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 – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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