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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, 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 acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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 inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to