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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially 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 just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention 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 notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to