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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted 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 about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing desire 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 integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to