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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. 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 suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including 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 not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to