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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

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

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

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