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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

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

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance 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 thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to