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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out 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 "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to