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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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