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"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge 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 step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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