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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When 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, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "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 courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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