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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue 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 sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "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 courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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