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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, 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 situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year progresses. 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to