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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across 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 not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to