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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his term 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 its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" 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 – resurfaced.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to