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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

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 attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning 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 even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to