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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised 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 a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

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 following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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