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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something 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 better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to