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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to