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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting 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 replace leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy 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 his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

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

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to