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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale 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 safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" 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 complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move 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