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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps 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 – 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 suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

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 following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir 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 facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to