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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

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

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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