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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon 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 – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing 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 these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to