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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as 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 not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision 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