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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

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

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

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

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

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

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

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 outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to