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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps 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.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "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 risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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