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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to