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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit 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 resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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