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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

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

True – to some extent. 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 implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to