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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to