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"I will remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to