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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to