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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification 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 revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year 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.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk 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 his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to