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

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point 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 provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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