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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, 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 rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario 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 sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm 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 comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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