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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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