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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, 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 only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to