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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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