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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

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 contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to