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"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

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

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to