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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action 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 far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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