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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe 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 acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

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