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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial choppy 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 firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated 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 pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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