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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never any time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship 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 at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to