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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir 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 perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to