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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

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 after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before 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 long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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