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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time 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 point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to