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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. 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 stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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