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"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major 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 safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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 statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to