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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen 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 more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to