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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

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

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me 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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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