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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to