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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to