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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number 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 Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash 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 more diplomatic 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 risk 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 a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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