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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy 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 many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to