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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

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

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former 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 far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to