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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk next year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – 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 fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on 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 a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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