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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented 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 firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to