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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to