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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened 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 our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

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

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to