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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" 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 risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails 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 his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to