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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

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

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

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

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

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 many years, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to