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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely 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 much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering 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 "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

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