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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate 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 change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega 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 about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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