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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want 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 resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said 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 comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify 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 takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to