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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, 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.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to