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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to