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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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 backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to