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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies 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 this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

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

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 after an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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 clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to