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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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