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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely 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 coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 controversy when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to