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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning 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 be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable 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, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret 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 "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires 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 thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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