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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not 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 revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to